World Bank dis­cusses $300m in new Myan­mar loans

The World Bank is dis­cussing the pos­si­bil­ity of ex­tend­ing new loans to sup­port Myan­mar in ar­eas such as fi­nan­cial sec­tor de­vel­op­ment, bud­get sup­port and dis­as­ter risk man­age­ment.

This fis­cal year, Myan­mar has ac­cess to around US$480 mil­lion in In­ter­na­tional De­vel­op­ment As­so­ci­a­tion re­sources, said se­nior econ­o­mist Habib Rab.

Of this, $100 mil­lion plus another $100 mil­lion from a sep­a­rate IDA cri­sis re­sponse win­dow is al­ready com­mit­ted for a flood and land­slide emer­gency re­cov­ery project, he said.

The World Bank also plans to loan $100 mil­lion to the Min­istry of Plan­ning and Fi­nance for a fi­nan­cial sec­tor de­vel­op­ment project planned for this fis­cal year.

“For the re­main­ing $280 mil­lion, we are still in dis­cus­sions with the gov­ern­ment on pos­si­ble ar­eas of sup­port, which could in­clude health, dis­as­ter risk man­age­ment and de­vel­op­ment pol­icy fi­nanc­ing,” Mr Rab said.